Work of the Week – Stefan Heucke: Cantata of Fire

Bach inspires. This is the motto of the 2024 Münster Bach Festival, which has commissioned its composer in residence Stefan Heucke to compose a new cantata. His Cantata of Fire (original German Title: ‘Kantate vom Feuer’) will be premiered at the opening concert on 17 May 2024 in Münster Cathedral. Golo Berg will conduct the Philharmonic Choir and the Münster Symphony Orchestra, with Gerhild Romberger (alto), Thomas Laske (bass) and Gerhard Mohr (narrator) singing.

Cantata of Fire is part of a pasticcio oratorio called 'PfingstFeuer' (‘Pentecost Fire’), in which the new composition is accompanied by choruses and arias from cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Cantata of Fire by Stefan Heucke: Inspiration and Enthusiasm

Heucke has a narrator, an alto and a bass declaim and sing the verses, while he entrusts the choir with short sentences of fundamental, supra-individual significance. The libretto of the Kantate vom Feuer was written by the poet and theologian Christian Lehnert as a series of his own and other people's lyrical texts that continue the Pentecostal theme and inspirational metaphor. Fire and breath, enthusiasm, divine activity in the world:  

What feeds the glow of light / that I carry within me // A spark / almost nothing / has kindled it? 

Just a few days after the premiere of the Cantata of Fire, another new work by Stefan Heucke can be experienced at the Bachfest Münster: his extensive St Mark Passion will be performed for the first time on 20 May 2024 in the Apostelkirche Münster. 

Further Reading:

Stefan Heucke: Composer Profile

Cantata of Fire: Work Details and Online Score 

Website Bachfest Münster

St Mark’s Passion: Work Details and Online Score 

illustration: Faith Stock / Adobe
photo Stefan Heucke: Ursus Samaga